Not sure what the situation is with the investigation he is involved in, but Paqueta at the weekend was absolutely class, he wouldn’t look out of place just ahead of our back 4.
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Good player, but does he pass the no dickheads test?
I’d say so.
Said to wifey yesterday whilst watching: “Paqueta’d be a tidy lil player for us, if he wasn’t such a twat!”
Cost is silly and I doubt we will buy in that area unless we decide on Andre.
The backline needs to be looked at along with the situation on Salah.
He also looked crap a week or so back, rather not buy players who turn up when they fancy it.
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He looks a bigger twat with this dance.
Precisely, that was the point…to find something ridiculous 
I don’t think he offers us anything that the likes of Mac and Dominik aren’t offering. He’s a good player though but he’s older than them as well and the transfer fees quoted are on the higher side.
Unless we get in someone like a peak , injury KDB , We shouldn’t be looking in at any reinforcments on the CM position.
The DM role i believe is being managed by Klopp with his transitional play of using almost 3 BBM’s right now. The real litmus test on this change comes against Spurs though. If we show a good account of ourselves in midfield , it means that the tactics are working. Endo is likely someone that the club has bought to settle the ship and see out the matches.
Unless we get a talent like Caicedo , Lavia , then the thinking might change. It’s more important to buy a left winger replacement for Salah when he does leave the next season and then focus on revamping the defense. Matip gone, Gomez’s role needs some clarity , is he the third choice CB or the 2nd choice RB ? Which gets more priority ?
The way Paqueta has been used in last years confuses me.
Brazil is one thing, but then you have sides like Lyon and West Ham, which realistically aren’t the top level.
For Brazil at the last WC, I was of the opinion that he was used too deep, almost as that more offensive double pivot alongside Casemiro. For me, Brazil needed a “Guimaraes” type of player alongside Casemiro if they wanted to go all the way. They ended up using a very defensive midfielder and a very offensive minded one behind all those attacking options. United have similar problems now when they use Eriksen or Mount alongside Casemiro.
For me, Paqueta remains more of a #10 than a deeper midfielder. Able to play in half spaces, which is maybe why City were looking at him (when Bernardo still didn’t sign a new deal), possibly as a long term Bernardo replacement?
He’d probably be best either in a team that plays with a single #10, where there isn’t much asked from him in terms of pressing (which is the opposite of what is crucial at Liverpool under Klopp). Or to play the Odegaard role he has at Arsenal. That trend of using offensive minded left footers in the high RCM position.
The next thing we’ll probably need in midfield is still more of a proper, serious #6. In those #8 roles and offensive minded midfielders, we have enough quality, talent and depth.
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Paqueta is a good player, but I don’t see the value there, if the price Man City were going to pay is anything to go by. There are also possible character issues, with the gambling stuff, and then beyond that, what is our need?
Even in a post-Thiago world, whether that happens in January or next summer, we would have MacAllister, Szoboszlai, Jones, Gravenberch, Elliott, Bajcetic and Endo.
Seven players for three positions. Lots of talent there, and plenty of youth. They all need minutes.
To my mind I could make the case for a more dedicated 6, especially in the hardest games, but on the other hand, I’m watching to see how the current blend unfolds, as there’s a sense that the style of our play is evolving beyond the need for a fixed 6.
I’m not altogether convinced, at this stage, that we will sign another midfielder beyond the seven listed above, even after Thiago goes.
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I suppose the key will be if Endo takes his chance and proves himself more than a stopgap. We were prepared to spend over 100m on Caicedo, so the club certainly feel they need that specialist in midfield to break up play.
Also with Thiago coming to the end I don’t think it will be long before we are shopping for that DM role.
He’s likely getting a long ban after the investigation against him is concluded.
From what I’ve seen the allegation is that he intentionally got booked with family members/friends betting on him to get a yellow. The flag was that a lot of new accounts, which have supposedly been traced to people close to him, were created and immediately put the maximum allowed bets on Paqueta to take a booking - which at the time is something he had rarely done.
I saw that someone actually spotted this on reddit before the game and flagged it (I’m sure the betting companies had already noticed), a player with three bookings all season was suddenly odds on to get a yellow card - which he did in the 24th minute.
If those details of the story are all true then it seems pretty cut and dried. Toney had an eight month suspension, which was reduced after being diagnosed as a gambling addict, but Paqueta’s seems more calculated so I doubt that excuse will wash for him.
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Geezz… these players get already a fortune for playing football, but still, some of them think that it isn’t enough… 
The sanctions for this sort of thing appear to be all over the place. I’ve seen them as a low a suspended sentence for just betting in general (see Mitch Clark at Stanley a couple of years ago). Toney was never accused of betting on his own games and presumably the difference in punishment there was the volume of bets placed, which seems a bit backwards because that is far more consistent with a generalized gambling problem (as later accepted) than nefarious attempts to influence the outcome of the bets as Pacqueta is accused of. You then have the prior Stanley scandal where they were throwing matches and betting on themselves to lose and only got a suspension comparable to Toney’s. Amusingly, the longest ban in that Stanley case was for an opposition player who was betting in his side to win. Presumably the implication is he pushed the scheme which explains why he got the bigger sentence.
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If that is all indeed true it has to be longer than Toney who seemed to just be a gambling addict betting on matches he wasn’t involved in.
I felt a bit for him really, silly lad but when compared to what Paqueta is rumoured to have done and what those snooker players did it really is just a bit sad.
Fair play to the lad, to be honest. He’s not betting to lose a match or a red card or an own goal. He’s rinsing the exploitative assholes in Vegas and elsewhere on an insignificant prop bet. Crack on.
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I can see the logic of this to be honest, look after family members to get a few quid and exploit the avarice allowed by the game (industry).
He is going to be made an example of. Toney gets a half free pass as an England striker, this guy will be treated like Suarez.
Great player.
He should definitely get the worst punishment if he purposely does something in a match in order for someone else to win a bet.
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This is like spot fixing. If someone can do that, what else can they do ?
What about the industry that promotes the chances of such behaviour?